Accessible books for students with print disabilities

If you are a slow reader or find reading difficult, you might have print disability. A student with print disability is unable to gain information from standard print materials. That’s why an alternative access or a specialized format is needed. Listening to textbooks in the format of talking books could make your reading more fluent.

Students who are unable to read printed books due to, for example, dyslexia or learning disorder, can use Celia’s talking books, free of charge. Celia is the national centre for accessible literature and publishing in Finland. Celia offers both fiction and non-fiction books, including textbooks. Most of Celia’s books are in Finnish but Celia also has a small collection of books in English. Celia’s books can be listened to by computer, tablet or smart phone. To use Celia talking books, you need to register for Celia’s services. You can register at the UEF Library.

There are also other book services for people with print disabilities. Bookshare is an international service. Bookshare books are ebooks and can be listened, for example, with Dolphin Easy Reader or Go Read applications. The appointed library staff members will guide you on Bookshare registration.

If you don’t have print disability but would like to listen to course books, you can use screen readers. A screen reader converts text into speech, in other words reads out the text on the computer screen. To listen to books all you need is a computer or a mobile device, a screen reader and a book that is in machine readable format. There are many different screen readers, e.g.: